Greater than 90% of Individuals rejoice Thanksgiving, and thousands and thousands of them will sit all the way down to turkey on Thursday.
When you consider main turkey-producing states, California isn’t precisely high of thoughts. However the Golden State contributes about 6.2 million of the birds every year — about 2.8% of the nationwide whole, based on the most recent report from Hint One, a agency specializing in regulatory compliance for the meals and beverage business.
Over 85% of U.S. turkey manufacturing is concentrated in 13 states, together with California. North Carolina and Minnesota lead the pack as the highest producers — and collectively are answerable for greater than 2 billion kilos of turkey.
Throughout the nation, producers raised about 218 million turkeys in 2023.
California ranks eleventh in turkey manufacturing by pound and tenth by whole turkeys raised, with the birds averaging 31.9 kilos every for a complete manufacturing of practically 200 million kilos.
The typical dimension of turkeys raised within the U.S. — 32 kilos — has practically doubled for the reason that Sixties. This development has helped preserve comparatively excessive manufacturing ranges whilst the entire variety of turkeys raised has declined since peaking at about 303 million birds in 1996.
The expansion in turkey dimension is especially resulting from selective breeding, improved diet and developments in farming practices. Whereas bigger turkeys are extra economical per pound, smaller birds provide advantages like higher tenderness, even cooking, and shorter thawing and cooking occasions. For bigger gatherings, getting ready two smaller turkeys as a substitute of 1 massive hen will increase the provision of well-liked cuts like wings, drumsticks and thighs.
In 2023, California produced roughly 197.8 million kilos of turkey, a small fraction of the U.S. whole of 6.99 billion kilos. That translated to $185.9 million for California, in comparison with the nationwide whole of $6.57 billion.
Though turkey remains to be a first-choice meals for households at Thanksgiving, U.S. turkey manufacturing has skilled a decline following many years of development.
From 1960 to the mid-Nineties, per capita manufacturing rose sharply, peaking at 26.8 kilos per individual in 1996. Since then, it has steadily declined, dropping to twenty kilos per individual in 2022—a 25% lower. Whole manufacturing peaked at 7.9 billion kilos in 2008 however has since stabilized at round 7 billion kilos yearly.
A number of components contribute to this decline in demand. Well being considerations and shifts towards plant-based diets have led many Individuals to scale back meat consumption, together with turkey. Rising turkey costs, from $0.80 per pound nationally in 2018 to $1.40 per pound in 2023, have additional impacted consumption.
Typically, turkey manufacturing is essentially concentrated alongside or east of the Mississippi River, though California stands out as a notable exception.
